Mesa 18.3.4 Brings VA-API VP9 Improvements, More Coffeelake/Icelake IDs For Intel

[xiando]

And who said mobile GPU needs it more?

The difference between a weak laptop/system with a APU and a desktop with a GPU is that VP9 decoding (and encoding) is nice to have on the desktop and actually needed to play it on the weak-ass laptop. I have a cute little 13.3" machine with a nice IPS screen and a Intel CPU that's so weak it can barely do anything. It can't even play HEVC and VP9 without hardware decoding. It is needed as in required if you want to play video. It's great to have hardware decoding on desktops but it's not like you can't play video at all if you don't have it (unlike phones and weaker laptops).

It's worth mentioning that Intel CPUs have had VP9 decoding since Broadwell (or earlier). It's very pathetic that AMD are still selling brand new dedicated CPUs and GPUs without this. They should have VP9 and AV1 encoding and decoding as a standard feature on either one. Doesn't have to be GPUs if they CPUs have it (think of it as a feature like AVX).

[dungeon]

I find all this mobile vs. desktop debate interesting, considering Raven Ridge is a desktop APU .

Raven Ridge announced at May 30, 2017. then mobile lauched first at October 26, 2017, later on Raven Ridge desktop February 12, 2018... and then there is Raven Ridge for embedded also, so called V1000 serie

Basically RR is mobile/desktop/embedded market

Fastest RR could be 4.5 times faster than slowest, but when it comes to hardware video decoding/encoding they are all the same

[Guest]

xiando - No, Intel added VP9 decoding only on Kabylake+ IIRC. My Skylake GPUs don't have it. Broadwell and earlier don't have it for sure.

Maybe you're thinking about VP8? I think that was introduced in Broadwell and later.

[xiando]

xiando - No, Intel added VP9 decoding only on Kabylake+ IIRC. My Skylake GPUs don't have it. Broadwell and earlier don't have it for sure.

Maybe you're thinking about VP8? I think that was introduced in Broadwell and later.

I have the Broadwell technology.

libva info: VA-API version 1.4.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_4
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.4 (libva 2.4.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Broadwell - 2.3.0
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264StereoHigh : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264StereoHigh : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc
VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP8Version0_3 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP9Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD

and that is how I know it has the VP9 hardware decoding. Well, the one I have has anyway. idk about yours.

[Guest]

xiando - Are you using that hybrid Intel libva driver? I heard it supports VP9 partially. Have you tested with VP9 videos to see if it actually reduces CPU usage, and uses the HW decoder?

[Gusar]

xiando - sandy8925 is right, Broadwell and Skylake have a hybrid VP9 decoder, which means a combination of CPU and GPU shaders. They do not have a dedicated VP9 decoder. Hybrid decoders are a lot less efficient than dedicated decoders, though they can help when the CPU is weak - the hybrid VP9 decoder was commissioned by Google for use in Chromebooks.

[xiando]

yeah, it's the hybrid thing. I actually looked it up. It was wrong to just assume it's hardware because vainfo says it's doing VP9 & mpv reports using that. truth is that it's just a cheat.